Florida restaurant faces backlash after selling pizzas with iguana meat as topping

It was a hiss and a miss.

A Florida pizzeria is facing backlash for adding iguana pizza to their menu while a cold snap in the Sunshine State stunned the invasive reptiles, causing them to fall from trees.

Bucks Coal Fired Pizza in North Palm Beach will stop offering iguana as a pizza topping after receiving a slew of complaints to the Health Department, according to local10.

The restaurant put out a viral video with tens of thousands of likes earlier this month, showing pieces of the large lizards being tossed onto cheesy dough and thrown into a pizza oven.

“My buddy hit me up and was like, how do you feel about me bringing in some iguana meat and making iguana pizza? I said, absolutely,” owner Frankie Cecere told the outlet.

The viral idea came about when iguanas across the state were falling from trees as temperatures plummeted. This happens to the reptiles because they are cold-blooded and become paralyzed to conserve energy.

Despite the polarizing menu choice, the pizzeria received “about 1,500 calls for iguana pizza,” Cecere said.

“It’s highly sought after apparently,” the owner added.

Bucks Coal Fired Pizza will now stop offering the topping due to complaints to the Health Department and concerns over animal cruelty.

“People called in saying we had live iguanas in house, like an animal cruelty issue,” Cecere said. “We don’t have live iguanas here.”

“I thought it would fall under catch and cook,” he added.

The pizzeria is now working through regulatory questions about serving the iguana meat, the outlet said.

“You don’t need a license to harvest iguanas because they’re an invasive species, but apparently, there’s no statute for it,” Cecere said.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) has temporarily allowed residents to remove and dispose of cold-stunned iguanas without a permit.

A Florida TikToker had a similar idea with the excess frozen iguanas but instead opted for Mexican cuisine. The content creator went viral for his videos making and eating iguana tacos.